Soviet Footballer of the Year

The award Soviet Footballer of the Year was awarded to the best footballer of the Soviet Union from 1964 until 1991. The poll was conducted among journalists by the weekly sport newspaper Football (Football-Hockey). Each journalist named his own top three player every year. Each place carried a point weight such as 1st place was worth 3 pts., 2nd - 2, and 3rd - 1.

The idea for the award appeared right after Lev Yashin has received Ballon d'Or award in 1963. The honours were awarded along with several other prizes and awards at the end of the competition season. For goalkeepers being not limited from the Soviet Footballer of the Year, also were awarded separate honours the "Best Goalkeeper of the Year". The best goal-scorer of the Soviet Top League was awarded with the "Best Topscorer of the Year". Before becoming an official award before 1964, in 1950s Moskovskij Komsomolets and Komsomolskaya Pravda were conducting own polls to honour the best footballer of the country.

List of winners

0Year0	0Place0	0Player0	0Club0	0Points0	0Notes0
1964	01st	0Valery Voronin0	0Torpedo Moscow0	186
	02nd	0Valentin Ivanov0	0Torpedo Moscow0	85
	03rd	0Slava Metreveli0	0Dinamo Tbilisi	80
1965	01st	0Valery Voronin0	0Torpedo Moscow0	?	0Only the winners were announced; it was later established that0 0Streltsov finished 2nd.0
	02nd	0Eduard Streltsov0	0Torpedo Moscow0	?
1966	01st	0Andriy Biba0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	94	0Yashin and Shesternev obtained an equal number points,0 0but Yashin was ranked higher for having more 1st place votes.0
	02nd	0Lev Yashin0	0Dynamo Moscow 0	75
	03rd	0Albert Shesternev0	0CSKA Moscow	75
1967	01st	0Eduard Streltsov0	0Torpedo Moscow0	155
	02nd	0Murtaz Khurtsilava0	0Dinamo Tbilisi 0	84
	03rd	0Anatoliy Byshovets0	0Dynamo Kyiv 0	31
1968	01st	0Eduard Streltsov0	0Torpedo Moscow0	206
	02nd	0Murtaz Khurtsilava0	0Dinamo Tbilisi 0	107
	03rd	0Albert Shesternev0	0CSKA Moscow 0	41
1969	01st	0Vladimir Muntyan0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	223
	02nd	0Anzor Kavazashvili0	0Spartak Moscow 0	170
	03rd	0Albert Shesternev0	0CSKA Moscow 0	76
1970	01st	0Albert Shesternyov0	0CSKA Moscow0	298
	02nd	0Vladimir Fedotov0	0CSKA Moscow 0	159
	03rd	0Viktor Bannikov0	0Dynamo Kyiv 0	73
1971	01st	0Evhen Rudakov0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	298
	02nd	0Viktor Kolotov0	0Dynamo Kyiv 0	200
	03rd	0Eduard Markarov0	0Ararat Yerevan 0	61
1972	01st	0Yevgeny Lovchev0	0Spartak Moscow0	188
	02nd	0Evhen Rudakov0	0Dynamo Kyiv 0	156
	03rd	0Murtaz Khurtsilava0	0Dinamo Tbilisi 0	140
1973	01st	0Oleg Blokhin0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	207
	02nd	0Arkady Andriasyan0	0Ararat Yerevan0	156
	03rd	0Vladimir Pilguy0	0Dynamo Moscow0	82
1974	01st	0Oleg Blokhin0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	236
	02nd	0Vladimir Veremeev0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	62
	03rd	0Aleksandr Prokhorov0	0Spartak Moscow0	60
1975	01st	0Oleg Blokhin0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	362
	02nd	0Vladimir Veremeev0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	108
	03rd	0Yevgeni Lovchev0	0Spartak Moscow0	99
1976	01st	0Vladimir Astapovskiy0	0CSKA Moscow0	256
	02nd	0David Kipiani0	0Dinamo Tbilisi0	136
	03rd	0Oleg Blokhin0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	116
1977	01st	0David Kipiani0	0Dinamo Tbilisi0	323
	02nd	0Oleg Blokhin0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	198
	03rd	0Yuriy Dehteryov0	0Shakhter Donetsk0	171
1978	01st	0Ramaz Shengelia0	0Dinamo Tbilisi0	235
	02nd	0Oleg Blokhin0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	156
	03rd	0Georgi Yartsev0	0Spartak Moscow0	135
1979	01st	0Vitali Starukhin0	0Shakhter Donetsk0	248
	02nd	0Vagiz Khidiyatullin0	0Spartak Moscow0	175
	03rd	0Yuri Gavrilov0	0Spartak Moscow0	172
1980	01st	0Aleksandr Chivadze0	0Dinamo Tbilisi0	259
	02nd	0Oleg Blokhin0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	187
	03rd	0Vagiz Khidiyatullin0	0Spartak Moscow0	103
1981	01st	0Ramaz Shengelia0	0Dinamo Tbilisi0	360
	02nd	0Oleg Blokhin0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	217
	03rd	0Leonid Buryak0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	112
1982	01st	0Rinat Dasaev0	0Spartak Moscow0	400
	02nd	0Anatoliy Demyanenko0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	120
	03rd	0Andrei Yakubik0	0Pakhtakor Tashkent0	117
1983	01st	0Fyodor Cherenkov0	0Spartak Moscow0	442
	02nd	0Rinat Dasaev0	0Spartak Moscow0	181
	03rd	0Aleksandr Chivadze0	0Dinamo Tbilisi0	91
1984	01st	0Hennadiy Litovchenko0	0Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk0	397
	02nd	0Mikhail Biryukov0	0FC Zenit Leningrad0	222
	03rd	0Yuri Gavrilov0	0Spartak Moscow0	75
1985	01st	0Anatoliy Demyanenko0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	409
	02nd	0Oleg Protasov0	0Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk0	393
	03rd	0Fyodor Cherenkov0	0Spartak Moscow0	306
1986	01st	0Aleksandr Zavarov0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	357	0In 1986 Igor Belanov won the Ballon d'Or0 0but could not become the best player in USSR.0
	02nd	0Igor Belanov0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	313
	03rd	0Oleg Blokhin0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	81
1987	01st	0Oleg Protasov0	0Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk0	256
	02nd	0Alexei Mikhailichenko0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	144
	03rd	0Rinat Dasaev0	0Spartak Moscow0	120
1988	01st	0Alexei Mikhailichenko0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	482
	02nd	0Rinat Dasaev0	0Spartak Moscow0	109
	03rd	0Fyodor Cherenkov0	0Spartak Moscow0	81
1989	01st	0Fyodor Cherenkov0	0Spartak Moscow0	345
	02nd	0Stanislav Cherchesov0	0Spartak Moscow0	172
	03rd	0Vladimir Bessonov0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	164
1990	01st	0Igor Dobrovolski0	0Dynamo Moscow0	259
	02nd	0Sergei Yuran0	0Dynamo Kyiv0	115
	03rd	0Aleksandr Mostovoi0	0Spartak Moscow0	68
1991	01st	0Igor Kolyvanov0	0Dynamo Moscow0	229
	02nd	0Aleksandr Mostovoi0	0Spartak Moscow0	153
	03rd	0Igor Korneev0	0CSKA Moscow0	148

Most wins by club

Club	0Winners0	0Winning years0
0Dynamo Kyiv	9	01966, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1985, 1986, 19880
0Dynamo Tbilisi	4	01977, 1978, 1980, 1981
0Spartak Moscow	4	01972, 1982, 1983, 1989
0Torpedo Moscow	4	01964, 1965, 1967, 1968
0CSKA Moscow	2	01970, 1976
0Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk0	2	01984, 1987
0FC Dynamo Moscow	2	01990, 1991
0Shakhter Donetsk	1	01979

Most wins by player

Name	0Wins0	0Winning years0
0Oleg Blokhin	3	01973, 1974, 19750
0Fyodor Cherenkov0	2	01983, 19890
0Ramaz Shengelia0	2	01978, 19810
0Eduard Streltsov	2	01967, 19680
0Valery Voronin	2	01964, 19650

See also

After the Soviet Union dissolved most of the new independent countries created their own awards to the best footballer of the year. A few countries including Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania had been awarding their own awards even before the collapse of Soviet Union.

• Armenian Footballer of the Year
• Azerbaijani Footballer of the Year
• Belarusian Footballer of the Year
• Estonian Footballer of the Year
• Georgian Footballer of the Year
• Kazakhstani Footballer of the Year
• Latvian Footballer of the Year
• Lithuanian Footballer of the Year
• Moldovan Footballer of the Year
• Footballer of the Year in Russia (Futbol)
• Footballer of the Year in Russia (Sport-Express)
• Ukrainian Footballer of the Year
• Uzbekistan Footballer of the Year
• Footballer of the Year in Baltic and Commonwealth of Independent States